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A New Participant in the Tradition

For me, getting a manicure and pedicure in Singapore is a mother and daughter experience. I remember when my mother took me to get my first manicure and pedicure. I was only a teenager in high school. My mother had been getting them for years with her mother, and it was time for me to get in on the tradition. We would sit in the spa, talking about everything while the workers attended to our hands and feet. Many years later, I have my own daughter, but she’s not old enough to join the experience.

At our last manicure and pedicure session, my mother and I thought it would be funny to get my dad into the spa. He has typical man nails, where he simply cuts them with the finger and toe nail clippers and does nothing else. We knew that dad wouldn’t just willing walk into a spa, so we had to figure out a way to trick him into coming inside. The only thing we could really think of was telling him that we wanted to give him a surprise, and the only way he could get it was by covering his eyes with his hands.

My dad decided to do what we wanted, thinking we were taking him to have a big steak meal. I’m not sure why a steak meal was his first thought, especially since neither my mother nor I had mentioned anything about food, much less a steak. Still, my dad hopped in the car, covered his eyes, and waited as we drove him to the spa. Once we were inside the spa, he uncovered his eyes and wondered where the restaurant was. We told him that we would give him a steak meal if he got one manicure and pedicure. The craving my dad had for steak was great enough to get him into a chair for the manicure and pedicure.